Alumna Stacy Lynn (PhD, history, ’07) has spent nearly 30 years studying Abraham Lincoln and shares the story of the women who helped shape the 16th president into the person we know from history.
“Loving Lincoln” details the stories of women from Lincoln’s life and how their interactions shaped his life and legacy. Published this past June by Southern Illinois University Press, it also includes Lynn’s personal relationship with the topic as a Lincoln scholar.
Lynn, who comes from Olney, Illinois, earned her associate’s degree in science from Olney Central College before attending Eastern Illinois University. There, she studied journalism but decided it wasn’t for her.
She continued her education at the University of Illinois Springfield where she earned both her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in history. It was there that she got an internship with the Lincoln Legal Papers, now named the Papers of Abraham Lincoln, which was co-sponsored by the University of Illinois Springfield and dedicated to preserving Lincoln’s correspondence. The internship introduced her to the idea of studying Lincoln.
“I'd always been interested in Abraham Lincoln since I was a kid. I mean, everybody loves Lincoln,” said Lynn. “But I hadn't thought of him as a historical subject.”
The internship led to a job for Lynn at Lincoln Legal Papers. “As a University of Illinois Springfield employee; I had tuition waiver so I thought I will get a PhD at the U of I in Champaign-Urbana and study the 19th century,” said Lynn. “I ended up writing a dissertation in American legal history really rooted strongly in Lincoln's law practice. And I've been a Lincoln scholar ever since.”
In 2016, Lynn left the Lincoln Legal Papers to work for the Jane Addams Papers Project, based at Ramapo College in Mahwah, New Jersey. She found however that she couldn’t stop thinking about Lincoln.
“I had written a lot about Lincoln's law practice, I had written a lot about his divorce practice, I had published two books, including a biography of Mary Lincoln,” said Lynn. “Finally, I decided in 2020 that I wanted to write my own book about Lincoln.”
Lynn drew much of the book material from her research at Papers of Abraham Lincoln. She did even more research when writing the book and devoted it to the influence of women in his life.
The book is divided into sections based on women who interacted with Lincoln. The sections cover family members, friends and lovers, Mary Lincoln (his wife), women in his law practice, and Lincoln’s legacy, which includes Lynn herself.
“Lincoln lovers will recognize themselves in Lynn. The disinterested will become swept up in her—and his female contemporaries’—view of Lincoln as a genuinely compassionate man who loved and respected women,” said Leigh Fought, author of “Women in the World of Frederick Douglass,” in a review of Lynn’s book.
Lynn said that the book blurs the lines between biography and memoir, history, and her own personal experiences.
“In 2014, my 20-year-old daughter died suddenly and not too long after that I departed the Papers of Abraham Lincoln. All of that grief and sorrow, that personal grief that I was feeling, and my professional career being devoted to Lincoln is also infused in the writing of this book,” Lynn said. “Writing this book was cathartic.”
While living in Springfield, Lynn would often visit Oak Ridge Cemetery where the Lincoln tomb is. She decided to bury her daughter near the Lincolns.
“It just brings me a great deal of solace,” said Lynn. “History matters more if we can connect with it on an empathetic level.”
